Scarica The War Poets of the First World War e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! WAR POETS THE WAR POETS —> young men who wrote about war When the First World War broke out, thousands of young men volunteered for military service. Most of them regarded the conflict as an adventure undertaken for noble ends. It was not until the slaughter of thousands of British soldiers at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 that this sense of pride and exhilaration was replaced by doubt. ATTITUDES TO WAR: Before the war it was considered noble, but after the battle of the Somme in 1916 there was disillusionment and doubt. TRENCH WARFARE: Life was hell with poison gas, decaying bodies, mud and rain and repeated bombings. Soldiers wrote songs, letters, poems. WAR POETS: ‘’War poets is the name of a group of poets that wrote during World War I the feelings and ideas. They tried new expressions and they were modern in subject- matter. They presented the horrors of the war. They experienced the fighting, volunteered to fight and they spoke about modern warfare in a realistic way. THEMES: they are pain and suffering, patriotism, glory, duty, heroism, violence, loss of innocence and courage. RUPERT BROOKE(1887-1915) • He went to King's College Cambridge —> English school • He was also familiar with literary circles like the Bloomsbury Group and came to know many important political, literary and social figures before the war. • Brooke's reputation as a War Poet is linked to the five sonnets of 1914. He expressed an idealism about the conflict, in which the only thing that can suffer is the body, and even death is seen as a reward. • Sentimental attitude • The publication of Brooke's war sonnets coincided with his death in 1915 and made him popular, turning him into a new symbol of the young romantic hero who inspired patriotism in the early months of the Great War, when England needed a focal point for its sacrifice, ideals and aspirations. T H E SOLDIER The author of this poem is Rupert Brooke. It is written in the form of an Italiansonnet, a Petrarchan one and it is made up of 14 lines divided into two stanzas of eight and six lines. It has a regular rhyme scheme,(ABAB, CDCD ,EFG, EFG). The poet, so the narrator is a soldier speaking to a person from his family and this poem deals with the themes of war and patriotism. The poet will be proud to die for England, his mother country. In England he has spent a pure and innocent life, full of joy. Brooke shows a classic romantic attitude to war: he expresses his strong enthusiasm, patriotism and idealism because he hasn't experienced the cruelty of war. The use of enjambments or run-on lines make the rhythm of the poem flowing. The tone is patriotic and nostalgic.
